Flputnam Investment Management Co. Has $711,000 Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,122 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $711,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,926 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,132,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 19.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,355,000 after purchasing an additional 3,271 shares during the period. Blue Square Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC now owns 17,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 27.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 17,438 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,670,000 after buying an additional 3,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ground Swell Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth approximately $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.7 %

BX stock opened at $158.36 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $171.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. Analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.